Pirate Ship Cake – Readers Experience

My Pirate Ship Cake recipe is online for almost 2 years now, and finally I got mail with pictures from someone who actually used it.

Caroline J sent me this lovely 2 Pirate ship cake pictures and I think the cake she made looks GREAT!

Caroline’s Pirate Ship Cake pictures: 

Pirate Ship Cake

Pirate ship cake

After mastering the Pirate Ship Cake, I hope her next step is to learn how to make fondant, following my fondant recipe.

As always, it’s a great pleasure getting responds from my readers, and if you send pictures of cakes you made using my recipes it’s best, as other readers can see that the recipes are not impossible.

Caroline – Many thanks for the pirate ship cake pictures, I hope you’ll try more recipes and send more pictures J

Happy Cooking

Fondant Recipe - how to make fondant, is it difficult to follow the fondant recipe?

Like most things in life, practice gets perfection, but to make fondant is not too complicated, and given the upgrade it gives to the cake, I would sure give it a try.

Fondant recipe - How to make fondant

When you come to make fondant it’s important to use the right fondant recipe and follow it to the letter.

I know many people who tried some shortcuts on my fondant recipe and ended up with a fondant they just couldn’t take off of the table.
The fondant gets greasy, sticky or just resembles the taste of a commercial fondant, which is bad enough J

Three important tips before we move to the actual “how to make fondant” instructions and the fondant recipe:

1. When you make fondant, both the dough and the icing, make sure to make it in room temperature – Too cold or too warm room will hurt the dough
2. When you calculate the quantity of fondant icing required, it’s better to have too much fondant icing rather than too little, as leftover icing can be stored and used at a later date, or used for extra decorations
3. Make sure you make fondant on a clean and smooth working surface.
   Jewelry on your fingers or wrists or fluffy clothing could hurt the fondant’s surface

Ingredients required to make the fondant recipe:

• 1 Tbsp of unflavored gelatin
• 1/4 cup of cold water
• 1 tsp of almond extract
• 1/2 cup of light corn syrup (If a corn syrup is not available, you can substitute it with a sugar syrup made with 1-1/4 cups sugar and 1/3 cup water, boiled together until syrupy)
• 1 Tbsp of glycerin (some recipes say it’s optional, believe me, it’s a must)
• 2 lbs 10X confectioners’ sugar
• 1/2 tsp of white vegetable shortening

Directions how to make the fondant recipe:

• Sprinkle the gelatin over cold water in a small bowl and let it rest for 2 minutes to soften
• Place the bowl in a microwave for 30 seconds on High, until the gelatin dissolves
• Add the Almond extract
  
• Add the corn syrup and the glycerin and stir until the mixture is smooth and clear (if the mixture is not turning smooth and clear, microwave it for an additional 15 to 20 seconds on high and stir again)
• Sift 1 1/2 pounds of the sugar into a large bowl
• Make a hole in the sugar and pour the liquid mixture to it
• Stir with a wooden spoon until the mixture becomes sticky
• Sift some of the remaining 1/2 pound of sugar onto a smooth work surface and add as much of the remaining sugar as the mixture will take
• Knead the fondant, adding a little more sugar if necessary, to form a smooth, pliable mass
• Rub the vegetable shortening on your thumbs and knead it into the fondant
• Wrap the fondant in plastic wrap and place it in a tightly sealed container to prevent it from drying out
  If the icing dries out and harden it can often be revived by popping it into a microwave oven for a few seconds and then kneading it back to life

Now you know how to make fondant, I hope the following pictures will inspire you to give this easy, tasty Fondant Recipe

But first, if you want to take your fondant recipe to the next level, you’re welcome to visit my post How to Color Fondant

And one update (11/02/09) - A few of my readers sent me pictures of cakes they made following the instructions on this post.

I advice you to go and check it out, to see what to expect when you learn how to make fondant

An update from January 15 2008:

About 6 month ago I got a mail from one of my readers asking me how to make fondant.
I never thought it’d be the most popular post on my blog…
Anyway, from the comments I get I see that many people finds it easy to make, it makes me so happy as that’s the purpose of this blog.
Now that you see that how to make fondant is very easy you can go to the next level by trying to color it (see “how to color fondant”) or get inspired with baby cake decoration ideas at my previous posts “baby shower cakes” , “children’s birthday cakes” and “more children’s birthday cakes”

I’d appreciate if you could recommend this fondant recipe using one of the social networks below.

Happy Cooking

Baby Shower Cakes

A baby shower is a milestone event in the lives of expectant parents, and one of the centerpieces of the event is the Baby Shower Cake.
Baby shower cakes are made to celebrate both the mom and the future, or newly delivered, little life, so they should be lovely to look, good to eat and should match the baby shower’s theme.

Baby Shower Cakes are spectacular- some are fancier than the others, but all Baby Shower cakes are cakes that makes you WOW.

In this post I’m presenting a series of baby shower cakes pictures, to get you inspired and help you find a cake to suit your party’s theme.

Having a predefined theme to the baby’s shower is most important.
A baby shower is an opportunity to pamper the exhausted mother-to-be.
If planned well, it will distract her from third trimester discomforts, and good planning is the different between a doll evening to a night to remember! After facing some failures with planning and hosting a baby shower, I used a book that became my number one guide for planning a baby shower.
It takes you through the teeth-grinding first steps of planning your budget, learn how to come up with funds and find helpful co-hosts - while holding onto your serenity and even having fun!

You are welcome to use the baby shower NUMBER ONE planning guide; you are more than welcome to enjoy my Baby Shower Cakes Gallery.

And no baby’s shower is complete without a Diaper Cake

Happy Cooking

Related Posts:

How to make a Diaper Cake

Childrens Birthday Cakes

Childrens Birthday Cakes 2

Birthday Pirate Ship Cake

No Bake Cookie Recipe

How to Make a Diaper Cake – Part 3

How to Make a Diaper Cake is one of the hottest topics on my blog.

It all started with the first article, where you can find the “recipe” for making a diaper cake.
As you might guess, the first article is called How to Make a Diaper Cake.

As I mentioned in my last post, many readers who followed my advice and took the How to Make a Diaper Cake Video Tutorial actually sent mail and thanked me for the tip.Although I still believe that the How to Make a Diaper Cake Video Tutorial is the easiest way, I’m adding a new Diaper Cakes gallery, as I believe that when you see the final product, getting there is much easier.

So, I hope you’ll enjoy this gallery and find inspiration for your diaper cake.

For me, the “How to make a diaper cake video tutorial” made all the difference, and after watching it I can make the kind of diaper cakes you see above.

Happy Cooking

How to Make a Diaper Cake – Part 2

I got many responses to my previous post called How to Make a Diaper Cake.

It seems that I’m not the only one to find this task to be more difficult than one could expect, and more than one reader said he also ended up with a Diaper Cake from hell.

Another thing that made me feel good about my previous post is that many readers who followed my advice and took the How to Make a Diaper Cake Video Tutorial actually sent mail and thanked me for the tip.

Although I still believe that the How to Make a Diaper Cake Video Tutorial is the easiest way, I’m adding a gallery page to help those who try to make a diaper cake on their own.

I believe that when you see the final product, you are half way to understand how to make a diaper cake.

So, I hope you’ll enjoy the gallery and find inspiration for your diaper cake.

As you can see from the Monkey Diaper cake, There’s more than one answer to the question “How to make a Diaper Cake”

Notice the diapers shape, the diapers are not being tied separately, but being placed in an order that makes a flow pattern.

I never managed to make it right before watching the How to Make a Diaper Cake Video Tutorial, but now most of the diaper cake I make are with this pattern.

For me, the “How to make a diaper cake video tutorial” made all the difference, and after watching it I can make the kind of diaper cakes you see above.

If you want mare ideas, please visit my new Diaper Cakes Picture Gallery

Happy Cooking